40:30 Then he put the large basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it 3 for washing.
38:8 He made the large basin of bronze and its pedestal of bronze from the mirrors of the women who served 7 at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
1 sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 480) notes that the items inside the tent did not need to be enumerated since they were already holy, but items in the courtyard needed special attention. People needed to know that items outside the tent were just as holy.
2 tn Heb “there.”
3 tn Heb “there.”
4 sn The metal for this object was obtained from the women from their mirrors (see Exod 38:8).
5 tn Heb “and its stand bronze.”
6 tn The form is the adverb “there” with the directive qamets-he ( ָה).
5 sn The word for “serve” is not the ordinary one. It means “to serve in a host,” especially in a war. It appears that women were organized into bands and served at the tent of meeting. S. R. Driver thinks that this meant “no doubt” washing, cleaning, or repairing (Exodus, 391). But there is no hint of that (see 1 Sam 2:22; and see Ps 68:11 [12 Hebrew text]). They seem to have had more to do than what Driver said.